Chapter 12 – A Win Is A Win

Weeks had passed since Ajay's first televised game and since then she and her team went on a win streak. They were up to two to three matches a week. Ajay was still paired up with Renee and Anita (Bangalore and Wraith). The popularity of the team kept them together. It had been a busy month. Ajay was up to four to five pills a day. She was a well-trained combat medic. She was padding her resume with kills, healing, revives, respawns, and drops. Saturdays were always the big match days; that's when the bigger televised events always took place.

It was of course a Saturday. Ajay stood in front of a big screen in the loading room at HQ. It was about an hour before her match time. She waved her hand in front of the screen. She cycled through outfits that she owned. She sighed out of pure boredom. She hovered her hand over a little store icon and tapped the air. She brought up the store. She never really spent her money on anything. She started cycling through the clothing in the shop until she came to London Calling. She stopped and tilted her head. She nodded in approval. The outfit had a black shirt with a white skeleton ribcage. A black headband with her signature logo (Kodai Industries) in white on it. White gloves. Red and black plaid pants. White shoes. Lilac hair. Obnoxious as fuck. She purchased the outfit and taped the wear button. The screen brought up a feature so she could look at herself in the outfit. She nodded and closed out the program.

She looked around the loading room. She was the only there. She was always early. She sat down on one of the sofas and pulled out D.O.C. She began tinkering with the drone. She wanted to make sure that the drone was running at optimal speed. "This is gonna be a good fight." She thought to herself. She became a little bored with waiting "I need to quit getting here so early." She pulled her backpack over and got her drumsticks out. She began tapping them on D.O.C. She had a good beat going that was interrupted when Anita and Renee walked in. She stopped what she was doing and put her drumsticks away. She also put D.O.C. in her oversized left side pocket.

"Time to see if all those drills paid off." Anita looked right Ajay, "New Legend incoming tonight. MRVN is down for repairs." Anita didn't sit she just stood, straight and tall. The only time that Ajay saw Anita sit was at the bar or when she downed in the arena. There was still 30 minutes until they had to be on transport ship. The time was dragging. She wondered who the new Legend was, it seemed kind of weird that that they didn't get any information about this new Legend.

Ajay stood up and excused herself. She made her way to the bathroom picking up her backpack along the way. When she got into the bathroom she locked the door behind her. She pulled out her pill bottle and withdrew two pills. She put the bottle away and put her backpack on. She used the water from the sink to drink and took the pills. She left the bathroom and dropped her backpack next to the sofa she had been sitting in. When she made her way back to the room she noticed Bloodhound and Makoa there. "So does anyone got any info on this new Legend." Everyone was silent until Renee, surprisingly, spoke up. "HQ wants it to be a surprise." Everyone looked shocked. Renee didn't usually interject into any conversation. There was a long moment of silence.

"Well. We'll just gonna have ta find out when we get in, huh?" Ajay broke the silence. Everyone nodded and mad small talk until it was time to get on the transport ship. She half expected to see the new Legend on the ship but nothing. "What the fuck was going on? Where the fuck was this new Legend? Were they already in the arena?" They sat down and took off. The hum of the ship was always welcoming to Ajay. It was the one constant in her life at this point.

As got closer to the arena the Legends began putting on the communication device headset or comms device. It allowed for teammates to communicate with one another even if they were separated. Anita was generally the jump master on their team and Makoa on the other team and tonight would be no exception. Everyone stood up as the arena came into view and the countdown timer appeared in their HUD vision.

30 seconds until authorized drop

Ajay, Anita, and Renee stood together. As the timer flipped to zero the rear door of the drop ship opened Bangalore smirked, "I came here to party, let's rock." She proceeded to dive out of the ship. Lifeline and Wraith followed her. Wraith set a location ping to Skull Town, "We have no choice but to win." Bangalore confirmed the location, "Roger." Lifeline confirmed the location, "I heard that." Lifeline turned around in the air during their decent to look for the other teams dive trail. She noticed a trail going towards Bunker. "Dive trails spotted going towards Bunker." Lifeline turned around to land with her team. Wraith and Bangalore both acknowledged the dive trail and all raced to pick up armor, weapons, backpacks, and throwables.

They were all astounded when they came across the new weapons. Lifeline almost jumped in excitement. She had been training with all the weapons every day. She immediately found a Hemlok and an R99. She even found sights and extended magazines for each of her weapons. She noticed that Wraith had a Wingman and a Peacekeeper. Bangalore was carrying a G7 Scout and P2020. Lifeline made sure to carry enough heavy and light ammo to share if needed. She also had plenty of healing to go around. The team started making their way towards Bunker.

They looted along the way wasting no time to catch up with the other team. The ring was favoring Bunker at this point. The sand, under their feet, eventually turned into grass and then sand again. Bangalore pinged the backside of Bunker; she was always smart about their plays. If they approached from the back side then they would still maintain some sort of high ground. The inside of the Bunker was comprised of a long corridor with rooms and stair and more rooms. Bangalore always told them to enter from the backside so that they were not at the bottom of the stairs. High ground was always key to any battle.

The Bunker doors were loud as Wraith cracked them open. Bangalore stood with her P2020 drawn, aiming down the sight as the doors part through the middle. Bangalore entered followed by Wraith, who had her Wingman drawn. Lifeline remained outside just in case things went south; that was usually always the plan. If things went south Lifeline would have to decide to run or fight. Wraith started hearing voices in her head and by that time it was too late. Wraith tried to stop Bangalore, "Enemy trap." Wraith repeated what the voices said but it was too late and everything went to shit entirely too fast.

"Enemy trap?" Lifeline said. "She has never said that before. What the fuck is going on?" Wraith void jumped out of Bunker. Lifeline shut the door behind her and ran to meet her behind the truck. Wraith returned from the void and was coughing. "There was an enemy gas trap. Bangalore is down." Wraith was using a syringe to heal. Lifeline scanned Wraith, apparently the enemy gas only effected health but not shields. "Can you portal to Bangalore?" Wraith nodded and started her portal Lifeline ran to open the door and threw thermite and a grenade into the Bunker. She closed the door and ran back to the portal and threw thermite at the portal as Bangalore and Wraith exited the portal. She released D.O.C. and rushed to pick up Bangalore.

Just as predicted the other team came through the portal. Lifeline had Bangalore up at this point and pulled out her R99. The first was Gibraltar, he ticked once in the fire and was knocked instantly. Bangalore used a syringe to finish up healing as D.O.C disappeared. The next that enemy team member that came through the portal was Bloodhound who ticked once in the fire as the thermite finished up. The sweet sound of his shield shattered was music to Lifeline's ears. Lifeline put one clip of her R99 into Bloodhound and sent them into the ground. Bangalore popped off her final shield cell. Bangalore called out to her team, "Lifeline. Wraith. Finish them!"

Lifeline smiled and ran over to Gibraltar who was scooting backwards with his knockdown shield up. She shook her head at him and pushed him down onto his back. D.O.C. was out next to her, hovering over Gibraltar. Lifeline turned to her drone and yanked a cable out of D.O.C. and attached it Gibraltar's chest. She gave him an evil grin as D.O.C. lit up orange and red and delivering a shock that stopped his heart. After her finisher she stood up to find see Wraith throw Bloodhound through her portal after a series of face punches, Bloodhound was finished.

Just as Wraith's first portal started to dissipate the last Legend strolled out and her portal fizzled out of existence. The Legend who stepped out was a big guy. He had the stature of Gibraltar. Lifeline noticed he was wearing a gasmask that covered most of his lower face. He had a light brown beard and ferocious eyes they had a green glow to them. His hair was slightly long and receding; it was the same color as his beard. He was dressed in black with yellow accents. He hand some sort of long tubes hanging off of his belt on his waist. She watched as he threw something at them. Whatever he threw had a timer on it that went off quick with a loud beep and before they knew it they were all in a shroud of gas.

They all started choking on the gas it fill their lungs. She could hear him yell, "My vision is clear!" She began to panic as she couldn't see and she couldn't run. She walked slowly away from the gas, at least she thought she was getting out of the gas. Her health was being depleted but her armor remained intact. She heard gunfire and then crossfire. Wraith, "I've been down." She switched to her Hemloc. More crossfire. Bangalore, "They got me, I am down." She made it the edge of the gas and was finally out of the cloud. She was no longer slowed or blinded. She could hear his footsteps approaching. She hip-fired her Hemloc. She fire 3 round bursts until the clip was time to reload. She heard his shield crack as the gas cleared. She crouched and pulled out her R99. She aimed and empty the gun into.

She heard him pull out his gun and ready a peacekeeper. She tried to remain calm but the situation was not good. "This situation is not good." She was tense and her left side was throbbing in pain. He shot her once with the peacekeeper and her armor cracked. The final bullet of her R99 hit him and he dropped into a death box. She looked around and her team was standing. She heard the announcer's voice. "We have our Apex Champions." She tossed her gun in the dirt and fell back into the sand, her hand on her left side, eyes closed tight. She waited for the hum of the transport ship.